The quality of elite athletes that will be competing for the top $20,000 prize money in the Okpekpe road race is the best so far assembled and will be led by Ethiopia’s Yasin Haji who ran 27:00 under two months ago in Lille, France.
By Uzor Odigbo
World Athletics says the next elite label road race on its calendar will hold on Saturday May 28, 2022 in Okpekpe, Edo state of Nigeria.
The event in Okpekpe, the Okpekpe international 10km road race is coming after the successful organisation of the TCS World 10K Bengaluru in India on Sunday May 15, 2022.
The governing body for the sport on its label road race page on its website alerts the whole world to the fact that the next World Athletics elite label road race will hold in Nigeria.
It is the only label road race in all label categories that will hold that day before the Kigali International Peace Marathon in Kigali, Rwanda and the Tartan Homes Ottawa International Marathon in Ottawa, Canada which hold the next day.
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World Athletics Label Road Races are races that the World Athletics designates as one of the leading road races around the world.
The classification was first introduced for the 2008 running season, upon the suggestion of the IAAF Road Running Commission and the Okpekpe international 10km road race is the first road running event in West Africa to be granted a label status which confers on it the status of one of the leading road races in the world.
The Okpekpe race is returning after suffering two covid-induced postponements in 2020 and 2021 and organisers have promised a better and bigger race this year to be in line with its new classification as an elite label race.
The quality of elite athletes that will be competing for the top $20,000 prize money is the best so far assembled and will be led by Ethiopia’s Yasin Haji who ran 27:00 under two months ago in Lille, France to jump into the world top 10 list of performances so far this year and Kenya’s Sandrafelis Chebet Tuei who has improved her best from the 30.57 she ran in January 2018 to 30:45 last October at the 10K Valencia Ibercaja in Valencia, Spain.
This year’s race, the eighth edition will start in Apama Road and ends in the rural, rustic town of Okpekpe famous for its position on the hill top in the Edo North Senatorial district and its huge agricultural and investment potential and quite a suitable tourism destination.
The race is organised by Pamodzi Sports Marketing, a leader in sports marketing, sponsorship, hospitality and rights acquisition business with operations in Nigeria